Vocal Range And Singing Registers

[john]

Hey

Do you know what your effective vocal range is?

What about the range of your vocal registers?

What about the notes that are shakey as you change register?

What aboute notes at the top and bottom of your range that are shakey?

Do you know how to extend your range and get rid of the shakey notes between registers?

Cheers

John

[Steve]

No.

Eh?

Eh?

Eh?

No.

I tend to start most of my songs in the same key. (Not always) Sometimes I have to transpose to a different key when I can't reach certain notes. One thing I have noticed over the past few years, is my voice has changed! I used to be able to sing very high falsetto , now I can't sing falsetto at all! But I can also not sing any lower than I could before!

[AnneC]

One thing I have noticed over the past few years, is my voice has changed! I used to be able to sing very high falsetto , now I can't sing falsetto at all! But I can also not sing any lower than I could before!

The Incredible Shrinking Range.

My voice is definitely lower than it used to be. I used to be one of those women who could reach the stratosphere with no problems, and now if I go above a D6 I'm getting iffy. That is, unless I don't know how high I'm going, then I might hit a G6 without much problem. On the other end, I've gotten lower too. A Bb3 used to be the bottom of my range, and now it's about an F#3 if I'm pushing it.

G5 used to be the crack of my voice where I'd switch between head tone and chest voice. Now I think it's dropped to about an E, and that troubles me.

As far as range extension goes, I'm not greatly familiar with those techniques but I think the time is coming that I'll need to look into them. I'm not quite a spring chicken anymore and without doing something my range will probably sink more. I don't want to get into a situation where the highest I can sing is 2nd tenor! There's not much call for a modern chanteuse anymore.

[FinnArild]

On a good day, my range is from a C#1 to F#4. I know this, because that's the scales I rehearse a couple of times in the week (everything above D4 is more or less controlled howling, though). I plan to extend it to a G4 soon - I don't believe I have more to go on in the bottom part, which is more or less unusable until E1.

I have 5 effective registers, a bass register, a middle register, a high register - and two more or less overlapping top registers. The trick in switching between registers, I found was to extend each register so you have a little overlap to go on. A good technique for register change is:

C2,C3,B2,C3,A2,C3,G2,C3,F2,C3,E2,C3,D2,C3,C2

... in that pattern over the register changes you need to rehearse. This is good to get training on the intervals too, but it is usually too long to be used on the whole scale, when I already have one 8 note pattern and one 13 not pattern I do that with.

Here's my warmup pattern - I start on:

C3,G2,A2,F2,G2,E2,F2,D2,C2

- work my way all down to the bottom of my range, up to the top of my range and down to end at the pattern in C3 again.

Here's my other training pattern. (- indicates a pause) starting on:

E3,B2 - D3,A2 - C3,G2 - B2,F2 - A2,D2 - F2,E2,C2

- very good for intervals. Again, I start at the middle, work my way down, up and back again.

Edited March 15, 2008 by FinnArild

[Alistair]

HOW WOULD I WORK THIS OUT?

USUALLY WHEN I SING THE DOGS IN THE AREA COME RUNNING

[FinnArild]

I tend to start most of my songs in the same key. (Not always) Sometimes I have to transpose to a different key when I can't reach certain notes. One thing I have noticed over the past few years, is my voice has changed! I used to be able to sing very high falsetto , now I can't sing falsetto at all! But I can also not sing any lower than I could before!

If you enjoy your current range you should seriously consider doing scales every other week. It's like with the rest of our body; when we hit 30 we need to make some effort staying in shape - (until we hit 60 and nothing helps).

[Steve]

HOW WOULD I WORK THIS OUT?

USUALLY WHEN I SING THE DOGS IN THE AREA COME RUNNING

When you sing, the dogs in Torquay start howling...

[Nick]

My range is from a C1 to an A4 but the range that I will use and sing in is from a D1 if I try to harmonise and sing with people and sing in a bass range to about an E3 and I use that note on a number of songs I sing - I can sing a few notes higher but rarely do when singing with acoustic guitar.

My range a the top end is still expanding and the F,F#,G are now reasonably Ok but the G# and A which I can reach are poor in quality.

I've gone back to practicing singing scales and exercises recently and think it is having a positive effect.

[Nick]

HOW WOULD I WORK THIS OUT?

Well think of the last note of Falling off the Edge of the World - it's an F#3 and I would think is towards the top end of your useable range. Lower end I'll need to think about

Not where it's at - the high note in the bridge is again F#3 where we play it - in the original by Del amitri it's a G#3 and that's a struggle if I remember

Edited March 15, 2008 by Nick

[Alistair]

"Towards the top end of my useable range" - probably more like the absolute limit.

But thanks, you'll have to explain to me how you worked that out!

(How are you, btw?)

[Nick]

"Towards the top end of my useable range" - probably more like the absolute limit.

But thanks, you'll have to explain to me how you worked that out!

Because that's the last note of Falling off the Edge of the World. I happen to know as I checked at the time as I used it as a gauge of my own voice to se what notes I could hit and not. The Del Amitri song in the original is in E and the high note in the bridge was always a struggle so I worked out it was a G# as another measure.

(How are you, btw?)

Very well. Lynne was waiting to hear back from you about dates for gigs and things.

[john]

Hey

I added a diagram explaining registers etc to the first post.

Cheers

John